42% of Indian children malnourished, says report

New Delhi: Every third malnourished child in the world is from India. 42% of India’s 16 crore children are underweight and malnourished, says the Hunger and Malnutrition report, HUNGaMA, released by the Prime Minster of India Dr Manmohan Singh  in New Delhi.

Combating hunger: Indian children queue for a meal provided by their school/ Photo credit: Manish Swarup/ AP

“The problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame,” Dr Singh said as he released the report based on district level data compiled by the Naandi Foundation and Citizen’s Alliance against Malnutrition. Dr Singh expressed disappointment that the high GDP rates have failed to tackle hunger and malnutrition at the grassroots.

Naandi Foundation’s initiative, 'HUNGaMA' aims to ‘stir’ the nation to fight against hunger and malnutrition. The centerpiece of the initiative is the survey which was conducted in 112 districts covering 73, 000 households and 100,000 children across nine Indian states.

Rohini Mukherjee, Head of Policy & Advocacy, Naandi Foundation told OneWorld that the report is significant in two ways. “First, the fact that the report was released by the PM in the presence of government people, corporates and prominent media of India and not by an NGO, demonstrates the importance attached with the issue,” she says.

Citizen’s Alliance against Malnutrition is a group of motivated members of Indian parliament and development practitioners who have come together to fight hunger. By personally visiting districts that had high levels of child malnutrition, and sharing their experiences with the prime minister, the leader of the Opposition, chief ministers and others, the group helped put an urgent but invisible issue on the political map. Their ally in the mission, the Naandi Foundation is anon-governmental organisation working to fight poverty, ensure child rights and safe drinking water to the children. 

The Alliance indicates that there is much scope of improvement in the area. Rohini feels that the government is now more committed to tackle the issue.

Hunger pangs

While addressing the report launch, Dr Singh appealed policymakers and development practitioners not to rely solely on the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) to fight child malnutrition in the country. The prevalence of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world, and is nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa, says a World Bank Report.

He insisted that health, education, sanitation, hygiene, drinking water and nutrition for children cannot be achieved in isolation. The linkages have to be integrated within a concerted effort to fight the menace.

The report, however, notes that one in every five children reaching an acceptable healthy weight during the last 7 years in 100 focus districts of the country. “The 20% decline in malnourishment in the last 7 years is better than the rate of decline reported in National Family Health Survey-III,” noted Dr Singh.

The low nutritional, educational and social status of women is among the major factors that contribute to a high prevalence of underweight in children under five.

The government has multiple programmes in the pipeline to fight malnutrition but nothing much has been achieved over the years.

Working closely with the government to tackle hunger and malnutrition, the Naandi Foundation is striving to streamline public service delivery to ensure the benefits of the government schemes reach the poorest in India. For this, Naandi is planning to take up one block from each of the districts surveyed and with the help of the government, in three years time, demonstrate a significant decline in malnutrition.